Paul Finebaum Unveils Bold Plan to Rescue USC Football

Is Finebaum's plan all-time awful, or all-time awfully hilarious?

Sep 11, 2021; Los Angeles, California, USA; Southern California Trojans wide receiver Gary Bryant Jr. (1) collides with the goal post in the third quarter against the Stanford Cardinal at United Airlines Field at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Lincoln Riley was supposed to turn USC football around overnight and for the better part of a season he did.

Riley raided the transfer portal entering the 2022 season and turned USC from a forgotten program under Clay Helton to within one win of the College Football Playoff that winter.

Utah boat-raced USC in the Pac 12 championship game that year however and things just haven't been the same for the Trojans since.

USC Football's Disappointing 2023

After coming so close to its first College Football Playoff appearance, USC opened the 2023 calendar year with a heartbreaking collapse to Tulane in the Cotton Bowl. USC held a 28-14 halftime lead over the Green Wave but was outscored 32-17 in the game's second half to get handed a New Year's Six loss.

The 2023 season began with great hype for USC as the Trojans were a pre-season top 10 team and played that way, or at least appeared to, for the season's first month-and-a-half.

When the schedule got tougher the losses came and kept coming for Lincoln Riley and USC, however.

After a 6-0 start, USC was met with a 48-20 drubbing at Notre Dame, followed by a loss to Utah in the Los Angeles Coliseum a week later. Washington, Oregon, and UCLA would all beat USC as well by regular season's end as it finished with a 7-5 regular season record despite having College Football Playoff hopes in mid-October.

Last season's collapse had noted college football talkinghead Paul Finebaum declaring it "over" for Lincoln Riley earlier this summer.

Paul Finebaum's Initial Comments on Lincoln Riley at USC

Finebaum said back in the early part of July:

“If you look at the reality, the number of players bailing on Lincoln Riley in Southern California is startling,” said Finebaum. “I always thought he was a really good coach. Especially on the offensive side. But I don’t think anyone today views him in that same realm. Quite frankly, I think he’ll be out of Southern California at the end of the season.

“It’s a matter of whether he crashes and burns or whether he decides he has got to seek elsewhere. But I don’t think there is any way he is going to be successful out there. I think that train has left the station.”

That alone is enough of a lashing but Finebaum's suggestion on how to fix USC football should be seen as even more of spitting in the face of Lincoln Riley.

Paul Finebaum's USC Football Solution: Hire Coach Prime, Deion Sanders

That isn't a misprint.

No, it's really not.

That's the man's real suggestion that he made Monday on ESPN's First Take.

"You have to win in LA or you lose badly," said Finebaum, "I believe the answer after this season is Deion Sanders."

"He's going to be tired of Colorado because frankly, its not prime time," Finebaum added, "He's done well, as well as he can with his son (Shedeur Sanders) and Travis Hunter, and all the Stephen A.'s (Smith), and Shannon Sharpe appearances but that's going to dry up this year because they're not going to be that great, but you put Prime in Tinseltown and I think you have one of the great combinations in history."

Deion Sanders is Lincoln Riley Without the Winning

Nick's Take: Why on God's green earth would USC football join forces with a coach that hypes things to the grandest degree but doesn't deliver?

Deion Sanders is Lincoln Riley light. And by light, I just mean, without the winning.

Deion Sanders attacks the transfer portal to try and overwork his roster.

Lincoln Riley did the exact same thing and found success right away at USC. USC went from a four-win club in 2021 to 11 wins and within one victory of the College Football Playoff in 2022.

Sanders gets credit for the massive turnaround Colorado had his first year in 2023. It improved to 4-8 overall but went just 1-8 in conference play for the second-straight year.

Riley's path to major success at USC might not appear to be as clear as it was just a year ago but here's the thing: there is at least a path.

Sanders heading to USC for 2025 would be the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey taking over the Los Angeles Coliseum for seven-show stay from September through November.

On second thought, sign me up for that because the disaster that would come with it would be one nobody would be able to turn their heads away from.

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